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That this is the phase of the human being in which desire
takes its origin is shown by observation of the different stages
of life; in childhood, youth, maturity, the bodily desires
differ; health or sickness also may change them, while the
[psychic] faculty is of course the same through all: the evidence
is clear that the variety of desire in the human being results
from the fact that he is a corporeal entity, a living body
subject to every sort of vicissitude.
The total movement of desire is not always stirred simultaneously
with what we call the impulses to the satisfaction even of the
lasting bodily demands; it may refuse assent to the idea of
eating or drinking until reason gives the word: this shows us
desire- the degree of it existing in the living body- advancing
towards some object, with Nature [the lower soul-phase] refusing
its co-operation and approval, and as sole arbiter between what
is naturally fit and unfit, rejecting what does not accord with
the natural need.
We may be told that the changing state of the body is sufficient
explanation of the changing desires in the faculty; but that
would require the demonstration that the changing condition of a
given entity could effect a change of desire in another, in one
which cannot itself gain by the gratification; for it is not the
desiring faculty that profits by food, liquid, warmth, movement,
or by any relief from overplenty or any filling of a void; all
such services touch the body only.
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